


400 lux

by glimbows



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Mutual Pining, i wasnt gonna post this cause its messy but also we need more of Any glimbow, i wrote it at work so like...... thats fine, idk what the fuck this is trying to be but it isnt good /:, ive never been to a party / had a drink dont drag me, rated t just cause like. alcohol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:55:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24988663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glimbows/pseuds/glimbows
Summary: His car is as familiar to her as his dorm room. As the glass of orange juice he gets at the dining hall every morning. As his archery club hoodie she still hasn’t given back. She’s been purposefully neglecting her wash to wear it longer.or,After the party they're at gets boring, Bow drives a tipsy Glimmer back to her dorm.
Relationships: Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 102





	400 lux

**Author's Note:**

> you pick me up and take me home again  
> head out the window again  
> we're hollow like the bottles that we drain  
> you drape your wrists over the steering wheel  
> pulses can drive from here  
> we might be hollow, but we're brave  
> \- 400 lux, lorde (pure heroine)

It’s some cliche movie shit, the position Glimmer finds herself in. She’s literally coming-of-age with a red solo cup in her hand. 

What the cup contains now is a mystery, but it began as a drink mixed by Perfuma to “relax her”. Glimmer told her she was full of bull before taking a hearty swig. Since then, though, the concoction has mutated through the natural progression of the college party scene. She’d unintelligently set it down once after getting a refill and then proceeded to just hold it for decoration out of fear that it had been spiked. To make it  _ look  _ like she was having a good time. 

She isn't. 

Glimmer condemns herself to the far end of a couch in the living room, careful to steer clear of Mermista and Sea Hawk, who are drunkenly making out a few inches away.  Her face scrunches up at the sight of them all open-mouthed and messy. She doesn’t know why it agitates her so much, but she mulls over taking a photo to send Mermista tomorrow when she inevitably denies the incident ever occurring. 

As the lip-smacking gets louder, Glimmer clenches her fist around her phone. She opens her messages to text Bow and ask if they can leave. The last time she saw him, he was playing beer pong with a  _ very _ drunk and  _ very _ competitive Adora. Not something she had the energy to get in the middle of, but something she hoped Catra would record for later on. 

Her fingers glide over the keypad, words articulate. 

**11:49pm, sent to:** bow **_🏹_**

_ ✨ im going to commit a murder ✨ _

**11:52, sent to:** glimmer! 

_ please don’t do tht _

**11:52pm, sent to:** glimmer! 

_ where r u ???  _

**11:53, sent to:** bow 🏹

_ living room couch being held captive by sea hawk and mista  _

**11:53, sent to:** bow 🏹

_ they’re sucking face  _

**11:54, sent to:** glimmer! 

_ u know u can just ….. get up . right  _

Glimmer makes sure to leave him on “read” then. Not because she isn’t interested in his snark, but because she knows Bow well enough to know that he’ll be seeking her out any minute now. 

And it isn’t a moment too soon her knight in shining Bright Moon U - _t-shirt - turned - crop - top_ comes pushing through the crowd from the kitchen, a bottle of something clear in his grasp. He uses his free hand to wave at her, and Glimmer can’t help but give a puckery, smothered smile as she waves back. 

At last, he sidles up to her and says the sweet words she’s been dying to hear all night: 

“You wanna get out of here?” 

\---

“What the hell do you have in there, Mr. Designated Driver?” Glimmer asks as they shuffle out the door. Bow puts a hand on her shoulder to steady her as she lolls off the front step. 

“Water. What did  _ you _ have in your cup, Ms. Tipsy?” 

She raises a wonky eyebrow at him. “You filled that thing up with water?” 

“It’s to cope with not being able to actually drink tonight.” Bow shrugs. “And it didn’t make Adora any less charged up during our game.” 

The thought of their friend losing her mind over making Bow drink continuous shots of water is hilarious to her. Adora was probably too far gone to tell he wasn’t downing straight vodka. 

“Nerd.” 

“Me, or Adora?” 

“Yes.” 

“Someone’s  _ grooooouchy _ ,” Bow sing-songs as he unlocks the doors. Glimmer gives him the stink eye as she clambers up into the car, not without his help. 

Bow has always been her chauffeur. She’d sentenced herself to a lifetime’s worth of passenger seats when she failed her driver’s ed test for the third time. It’s not something she’s proud of, even if it means less work on her part. Her pride nags her to shove him out from behind the wheel and go ape. 

“Shut up. I think Perfuma tried to poison me.” 

“Mmhm, that sounds like her.” He jams the key in the ignition. “Buckle up.” 

That prideful feeling only ever lasts for so long, though. Glimmer listens and straps in. 

His car is as familiar to her as his dorm room. As the glass of orange juice he gets at the dining hall every morning. As his archery club hoodie she still hasn’t given back. She’s been purposefully neglecting her wash to wear it longer. 

But she knows every inch of this car. Her fingers, tingly with  _ whatever _ , tap between the cool leather of her seat and the squish of her thigh against it. When she nestles in close enough, the upholstery smells like him, an unmistakable  _ boy _ smell. Bow’s not one for a surplus of tacky bumper decals, but he’s kept a few glow in the dark star stickers stuck to the outside of the rearview mirror. Glimmer can’t remember how long its been since she put them there, but some of the edges are peeling. 

There’s a nick in the glass of the dashboard. She likes to rest her knees to the right of it. She sinks in like that now, fatigued, and looks out the window. 

From their surroundings, she can tell that he’s taking the long way back to her dorm. Sea Hawk’s off-campus party house isn’t too terribly off-campus, meaning it usually takes no more than ten minutes for her to arrive home on the normal route. The route Bow’s taking, however, goes through neighborhoods and past mini-marts. It’s a half hour drive in comparison. 

“What if I have somewhere to be tomorrow?” Glimmer yawns. 

Bow momentarily looks caught off guard, slightly surprised she brought up the obvious. But he levels out quickly. “I know your schedule by heart. And if you were planning on making your nine o’clock economics class, you wouldn’t have gone out tonight.” 

_ Ugh. He’s the worst,  _ she thinks. “Touché.” 

“I can turn around if you want,” 

“No,” she protests, forehead now leant against the window. The cutesy, identical houses roll like a tape through her eyes. “No, I like this.” 

Bow smiles softly, knowingly, and lowers his window a bit. The cool air feels like heaven after the sweltering, close-bodied heat of the party. 

“Oh, mine too! Mine too!” Glimmer practically begs, rolling her heavy head to the side. Her chauffeur can’t help but chuckle as he obliges. 

She doesn't like the term “lightweight”. And while Glimmer doesn’t get drunk often, she does get _buzzed_ pretty quickly. She’s shuffling airily through the emotions in her deck, embracing each with an ounce more confidence than normal. Five more minutes in their presence, and she _would_ have started documenting evidence of Sea Hawk and Mermista purely for entertainment. 

The burst of fresh air invigorates Glimmer and tethers her to the ground as much as it can after a drink or two. Her choppy pink hair breezes back as she dangles her head out the side of the car, giving Bow a clearer view of her face. He’s got a steady hand, but she almost drives him off the road. Their next turn is missed just so he can stare for a moment, content with taking his eyes off the road so long as it’s a straight shot. A familiar street sign passes, but Glimmer doesn’t notice, too caught up in her whooping and hollering to give a damn. 

It’s pure joy coursing through her veins now. For the life of her, she can’t remember what she was so irritated about earlier. 

“Bow!” She cackles, turning her head to face him. “You’ve gotta try— you’ve gotta try it.” 

“I’ve stuck my head out a window before.” A hand leaves the steering wheel to boop her nose. He’s laughing, a honeyed sound. “But knock yourself out, Glim.” 

Glimmer feels the light tap of his finger on her nose long after he pulls his hand away, dumbly going cross-eyed in an attempt to see the spot. Her semi-maniacal giggle fades off into a small, intoxicated murmur. The wind whips at the right side of her body, she’s still suspended halfway out the window, but she doesn’t feel it now that her one track mind has a new sensation to focus on.

What it is, she can’t quite pinpoint, but it’s warm; it’s filling her chest, flushing her cheeks, making her brain go to mush. And when she takes Bow in as he curiously side-eyes her, all she can manage is a stupid _ “Hi.” _ . 

“Hello,” he replies, amused. 

It takes Glimmer a moment to process the interaction. She slumps against her seat, pressing her hands to her reddening face. “Oh my  _ god _ , what is up with me?” 

“You’re  _ tired _ ,” Bow says. He breaks a tad so he can lean over and guide her into a comfortable position. “Just lay there and relax. Only a few more minutes.” 

Tingling feeling on the tip of her nose fades away as his hand finds her shoulder, her arm, her side. Despite the windows being open still, the air feels heavy. Glimmer lays with her left side pressed against the seat. Her knees are curled up to her chest, her hands gingerly resting on spots of her arms he touched. 

Bow is now driving with one hand, the other simply draped over the steering wheel. He drives her everywhere and Glimmer is somehow only noticing that tic now. The glow in the dark stickers seem to be unnaturally bright above her. 

Yes, the copy-and-paste houses they pass are quaint. Yes, the leather of these car seats are comfortable. But she can’t stop staring at his wrist. There is something about the curve of it that’s so perfect, that makes her want to copy it. 

Absentmindedly, she curls one hand’s worth of fingers in. Her nails dig into her palm. 

She wants to hold his hand. Her hand, it would fit perfectly against his, palm to palm, wrist to wrist— how intimate would that be? Would he allow it? He clearly doesn’t need it to drive. 

Glimmer’s heart thumps slowly in her ear. “Bow?” 

Her fingers, each feeling like they weigh a ton against gravity, are already grazing his. Bow blinks and carefully intertwines them. A mischievous smile follows. 

“Hiiii.” He imitates her. 

“Shut  _ up—” _

Shrill voices catches in the back of her throat when she feels it, the tickle of his wrist against hers. Like a spark to a flame, the sensation sets off a zing that travels down her arm. It wedges into her veins and drowsily electrifies her. Sizzling, simple, breath labored, Glimmer can’t help but recognize this feeling. It’s nearly exactly how she felt watching Sea Hawk and Mermista kiss, only positive. Not agitation, but infatuation intoxicating her. 

And that’s when she realizes two things. One, that she wants to kiss Bow, and two, that she was purely jealous beforehand. Not of Sea Hawk or Mermista, but of their situation. Fuck, she  _ wants _ that cliche bullshit. 

“Pull over.” Glimmer blurts, slicing through their heavy silence. 

“Are you sure? We’re only five minutes away from yo—”

“Pull  _ over _ , Bow!” 

He zips his lips and maneuvers the car so that it’s parked directly under a street lamp, all while keeping his hand in hers. Once they’re safe in park, Bow looks to his best friend with concern. 

“What’s going on? Are you okay?” 

Glimmer notices his grip get a bit tighter. Her heart flutters in response, not that he can feel it. 

“I…” she begins and realizes that she has no plan. “I like this. I like you. I don’t want to go home yet.” 

Bow blinks, looking from Glimmer to the street lamp above them. He can see her face clearer in the light. Her cheeks are rosy, eyes near-lidded and longing, mouth heavy with desires not yet said. It’s not a foreign look to him, but he’s never seen it on Glimmer before. 

And before he can fully realize it, he’s copying her. The more they attempt to take the other in, the closer they get, their foreheads eventually meeting in a soft bump. 

The street lamp is burning. The world is stopping. He knows what’s supposed to happen next. 

Bow knows she’s never kissed anyone before. Bow knows he wants to kiss her now. But above all else, he knows she’s tipsy. 

Glimmer’s lips have gone from heavy to puckered, waiting for him to meet her halfway. With a sigh, he uses his free hand to tenderly cup her cheek and bridge the small gap between them. His lips meet her forehead in one short, tender moment, and Glimmer merely stares at his chest in the direction her head has been tilted. 

They stay like that for a moment, neither wanting to look at the other’s face in fear that they’ll be met with disappointment. Had she come on too strong? Had he led her on somehow? 

Glimmer is the one that kicks the world back into tune as she finally exhales and moves her wrist so that it’s pressed to his, seeking that spark again. 

Bow leans back to grab the vodka-bottle of water, eventually placing it in between them as an offering. There, as she looks from the gift to his face, he lifts her hand and brushes her wrist against his lips. 

“Some other time,” he murmurs. 

And she, gleaming under harsh light, understands. 

**Author's Note:**

> i just think pure heroine is a very glimmer album thats all <3
> 
> also im working on an actual multichapter modern au-ish fic for glimbow, catradora, seamista, scorfuma, etc..... that one ill actually try and write WELL lmao. can u tell this wasnt beta(d) for shit
> 
> leave a lil comment if you liked and find me on tumblr @gllimbow!


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